Below is what President Obama said to President Buhari and his entourage...
Well, it’s a great pleasure to welcome President Buhari and his delegation here to the Oval Office for his first visit since the historic election that took place. Nigeria is obviously one of the important countries in the world and one of the most important countries in the African continent. Recently, we saw an election in which a peaceful transition to a new government took place. And it was an affirmation of Nigeria’s commitment to democracy, a recognition that although Nigeria is a big country and a diverse country with many different parts, nevertheless the people of Nigeria understand that only through a peaceful political process can change take place.
President
Buhari comes into office with a reputation for integrity and a very
clear agenda, and that is to make sure that he is bringing safety and
security and peace to his country.
He’s
very concerned about the spread of Boko Haram and the violence that’s
taken place there, and the atrocities that they’ve carried out, and has a
very clear agenda in defeating Boko Haram and extremists of all sorts
inside of his country. And he has a very clear agenda with respect to
rooting out the corruption that too often has held back the economic
growth and prosperity of his country.
On
both these issues, we’re looking forward to hearing more about his
plans and how the United States can partner with Nigeria so that Nigeria
ends up being an anchor not only of prosperity and stability in the
eastern part of the continent, but can also be an outstanding role model
for developing countries around the world.
And
we very much look forward to talking about security issues, how we can
cooperate on counterterrorism. We’re looking forward to discussing how
we can be helpful in addressing some of the corruption issues that have
held Nigeria back, and unleashing the incredible talent of the Nigerian
people. We all recognize that some of the best businesspeople in the
world are from Nigeria, and they thrive as they travel to other
countries, but we want to make sure that they’re also helping folks
thrive in Nigeria.
We’re
also going to have an opportunity to talk about some of the other areas
where Nigeria has taken leadership — in public health issues, fighting
tragedies like Ebola. Nigeria has an outstanding track record working
with us to eradicate polio, and that gives us a framework and a template
to continue to work on public health issues throughout the western part
of Africa, as well as throughout the subcontinent.
We’ll
have a chance to talk about issues of climate change, electrification.
As many of you know, Power Africa is one of our top priorities, making
sure that we’re electrifying the continent so that it can grow faster
and more people have access to the power that they need.
So
we’ve got a busy agenda, but I want to emphasize how much I appreciate
President Buhari’s work so far. I’m looking forward to seeing him put
together his team so that we can do everything that we can to help him
succeed and help the people of Nigeria succeed. Because if they’re
successful and doing well, that will have a ripple effect not only in
West Africa, but throughout the world.
So thank you very much.
What President Buhari said
Nigeria
will remain ever grateful to President Obama and the United States for
making Nigeria to consolidate its gains on a democratic system. The
visit of the Secretary of State, when he visited Nigeria to see the
President and the whole government of Nigeria, see the Chairman of
Independent National Electoral Commission for Nigeria, and saw the
operation was very clear and a positive trend that saw us through for
this credible election we had.
And
the maintenance of pressure by the United States, mainly, and Europe,
to make sure that the elections were free, fair and credible led us to
where we are now. It would have been almost impossible if the United
States did not maintain the pressure on the former Nigerian government,
but they would not accept anything less constitutional as far as the
processes of the election are concerned. We will ever remain grateful to
you because there are fundamental objectives that are identify all of
Nigeria’s people’s Congress — security, economy, employment especially
of youth, and then fighting corruption.
We
are extremely happy that the United States had made it absolutely clear
before the election that they are prepared to help Nigeria in this
aspect. And this is why I am here, and I am very grateful for the
invitation Mr. President extended to me.
Thank you very much, Mr. President.
No comments:
Post a Comment